Residential Architect Design Awards

the clure project, duluth, minn.

multifamily / merit

Despite their radical break with tradition, the three black cubes dotting this hillside received no negative feedback from their blue-collar neighbors.
No doubt it's because the unassuming homes foster community by making the neglected pocket neighborhood part of the larger one in density and scale. New plat lines respond to elevation shifts and views of the Lake Superior harbor. “There are no lawns, just native grasses running over the whole site,” says David Salmela, FAIA. “We intentionally tried to hide the property lines, so the place has a European courtlike quality.”

The judges praised Salmela's craftsmanlike use of materials—many of them local—and his Scandinavian pragmatism.